No Images? Click here Greetings, friends! Welcome to Your Life, Better for June 16, 2017. Here are five things you need to know this week to make your life better at work and at home: We are excited to announce our latest project, “Paid Family Leave: How Much Time is Enough?,” a three part series discussing the state of paid family leave today. Lookout for an op-ed written by BLL Director, Brigid Schulte, which serves as the finale to our pop-up blog on Slate. Ask any American mother or father how much time they’ve had off work - paid or unpaid - to care for and bond with an infant and recover from childbirth, and the answers are all over the map. The median tends to be 11 weeks for mothers and 1 week for fathers, a recent Pew Research Center report found. In other developed countries, paid and unpaid leaves can last from a few days to, in some cases, a few years. But how much time is enough? The Better Life Lab team scanned some of the best U.S. and international research to find out how the length of paid family leave impacts infant and child health and wellbeing, maternal health and wellbeing, gender equality and economics. The project features a detailed Timeline and Brief that lays out the research and makes science-based recommendations. By the end of the series you should have extensive knowledge of what families need in comparison to what they are getting. With widespread support for paid family leave and a new proposal for paid parental leave from the Trump administration, AEI and Brookings teamed up to release report on paid parental leave, a bipartisan “compromise plan” for policymakers to consider that suggests eight weeks of gender-neutral paid parental leave with a 70% wage replacement rate, up to $600 per week, and job protection. The Trump plan calls for six weeks. Democrats propose 12 weeks in the Family Act. Our Paid Family Leave Project provides the information and resources parents, business leaders, organizations and policymakers need to design the best practices and policies. Better Life Lab in the NewsOur pop-up blog on Slate wraps up this weekend on Father’s Day, if you haven’t been tuned in there is still a chance to play catch-up! Most recently, Amaya Garcia and Shayna Cook discuss the importance of supporting paraprofessionals in our growing multilingual education system. Evan Urquhart explores the experiences of Transgender employees using results from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, which suggest that Transgender employees still face discrimination in the workplace. Christina Cauterucci writes about the growing elderly population in the U.S., specifically focusing on Hawaii and the support families need to be caregivers, as well as reforms that are underway to make it easier for families to support loved ones. Ruth Graham explores how The Catholic Church, an institution historically run by childless men and women, is starting to implement paid family leave policies for its employees. Sally Hubbard describes the weight lifted off her shoulders when her husband quit his job to start his own firm from home. Most recently, Rebecca Onion discusses that the mindset keeping the U.S. from having government-funded day care may be greater than anti-feminism and linked to anti-communism. Employers Fall Short on Employee Wellbeing MonthNational Employee Wellbeing Month kicked off with the unfortunate news of Walmart punishing its workers for taking sick days. Shortly thereafter, Uber fired 20 employees amid claims of sexual harassment. Further investigation into its workplace culture is ongoing, and Uber drivers express feeling unsupported by management. A new report from Life Meets Work explores the systemic effects of toxic leadership in the workplace, and how damaging it can be to employee wellbeing. According to their survey results, approximately 56% of employees describe their current manager as “toxic”. Work relationships matter, but so does physical office space. More often than not, workplaces are designed around the wants of single, male employees, for example, office pool tables outnumber onsite daycare centers. Estimates show that as of last year, only 24 of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For offered some kind of onsite child care. Onsite child care is still considered a luxury, with only 7% of employers offering it. What’s more concerning-- company affiliated, onsite subsidized child care centers are becoming more scarce having decreased by 7% between 1996 and 2016 according to the Society for Human Resource Management. How can employers reverse these trends and advance employee wellbeing? Yesterday, Boston College’s Center for Work and Family released its report, The New Dad: The Career-Caregiving Conflict, which provides recommendations for how employers can better support working dads. For further resources, our Better Work Toolkit uses behavioral science to better understand what drives work-life conflict, and how to design systems and solutions to help improve health and wellbeing. Download a copy to share at the office! The State of Black Women in the U.S.Last week the Institute of Women’s Policy Research released a report on the Status of Black Women in the United States uncovering notable issues and progress in the community. Black women voted at comparatively higher rates than all other groups of men and women in the past two elections, but are underrepresented at every level of state and federal office. Stacey Abrams, who aims to become the nation’s first female black governor, is hoping to change this problem. Financially, black women’s median earnings were declining up until 2014 and many are still employed by the low paying service industry. Yet, 80% of black women are the breadwinners of their families, which is no surprise given that the share of black women with bachelor degrees increased between 2004 and 2014 and business ownership increased by 178% between 2002 and 2012. But beginning at a young age black girls are disciplined at higher rates in school and black women are twice as likely to be imprisoned than white women. These issues and areas of promise provide policymakers with a baseline for measurement and places that policymakers can seek to make change. The Ford Foundation has led by example in tackling these issues, creating a program for imprisoned men and women to earn a Bard College degree while imprisoned, as well as supporting fair-chance hiring policies. Emphasis on Early Care & Learning The U.S. ranks no. 36 in “Best Places to Be A Kid”. What’s keeping it from a top 10 “best” spot? According a report from Save the Children, the U.S. doesn’t spend enough on early childhood education and social programs for its children. Perhaps greater emphasis on equality in access to childcare and learning could prevent what Richard Reeves calls "opportunity hoarding", in which policies and practices are structured only to benefit a small fraction of the high-income U.S. population. New America’s EdCentral explores how the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has the ability to make waves in early childhood education by investing in better teacher-student interactions. Washington D.C. and Louisiana are using the ESSA as guidance to implement accountability and performance measures, like the Classroom Observation Scoring System (CLASS). The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s latest report highlights, quality teacher-student interactions optimize growth of children’s social-emotional skills, which are linked with a wide array of positive adult outcomes. Better Together - Let’s Talk We’re halfway through with Employee Wellbeing Month and we’d like to hear stories from our readers about the quality of their life at work. How does your employer address wellbeing at work and what are some areas that need improvement? We’d love to hear from you, email us here: betterlifelab@newamerica.org That's a wrap! We'll look forward to seeing your inbox again soon. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook — and suggest your best reads on living a better life! Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here! About New AmericaNew America is dedicated to the renewal of American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age. Our hallmarks are big ideas, pragmatic policy solutions, technological innovation, and creative engagement with broad audiences. Read the rest of our story, or see what we've been doing recently in our latest Annual Report. About the Better Life LabThe Better Life Lab is here to transform policy and culture so that people and families have the opportunity to live their best lives at work and at home. As a “lab,” we are dedicated to disruptive experiments, collaborative work, and innovative thinking. “Your Life, Better: News From the Better Life Lab” is our way to keep you in the know, featuring the best of what we’re reading and writing about gender equity, the evolution of work, and social policies that support 21st-century families. We provide a clear signal amid the noise to share what’s fresh and crucial to an inclusive vision of work-life, gender, and income equity issues. Better Life Lab Real choices. Real parity. All people.
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